Francois Fillon, a social conservative from France’s Catholic right and former prime minister, won Frances Les Republicains party primary on 27 November. He will now contest next springs presidential election.With votes from four-fifths of 10,228 polling stations counted, Fillon, who went into the second-round run-off as firm favourite, had won over 67% of the vote in a head-to-head battle with another ex-prime minister, Alain Juppe.All eyes now turn to the ruling Socialist party and to whether President Francois Hollande will decide to run for the left-wing ticket in his partys primaries in January.Opinion polls suggest neither he nor any left-wing candidate would make the second round of the presidential election itself next May, leaving Fillon a clear run at the anti-EU, anti-immigration National Front leader Le Pen that the surveys predict him to win.Nov 28, 2016